Our Walk Around the News Blogger, Kerry Dirk, is in the process of moving, so this week’s blog is a reader’s submission edition!
Local
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) invites you to attend an Open House for the Center City Connector Transit Study. The Center City Connector is one of four corridors identified in the city’s Transit Master Plan as having the highest ridership potential and the greatest need for higher capacity transit service.
Crosscut talks about the elephant in the room: Interstate 5, and the extensive repairs it needs.
The International Sustainability Institute released their Pioneer Square Active Streets Strategy (which Feet First assisted through a neighborhood walking audit to help plan for the neighborhood we call home) as a guide to looking at the many different construction projects planned for the Seattle neighborhood.
Anyone up for a weekday walk? A new walking group starts up in West Seattle.
Better late than never—how safe IS Seattle for walking? Find out how our hometown ranks up against other cities nationally.
Check out this map of Seattle’s very own POPOS—that is, Privately-Owned Public Open Space, or spaces that look private, but are actually public.
If you’re a family with children going to school in Seattle, please help the School Road Safety Initiative by filling out their online survey.
More Mount Vernon elementary students will be walking to school as part of a pilot project to test several safe walking zones around the schools.
National
The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center has announced three new Walk Friendly Communities, a title which means that the “city or town is being recognized for its success in working to improve a wide range of conditions related to walking, including safety, mobility, access, and comfort.” The three communities are: Bend, Oregon (Silver Level), Louisville, Kentucky, and Indiana, Pennsylvania (both at Bronze Level.)
Rice University mechanical engineering students design shoes which turn motion into electricity. Gives a new meaning to “power walking,” eh?
International
Looking for love? Head over to Prague where ROPID, the company that runs the subways, will “set aside carriages on some or all of its trains for singles seeking a soul mate.”
Pedestrians be taking back the crosswalk! Watch this funny Russian video of a man walking over the hood of a car in the crosswalk, which reminds us of this classic crosswalk video (you may have seen this video in an Ikea commercial).
It was National Walk Safely to School Day in Australia this week!
If you come across any interesting pedestrian news or stories, please send a link to info@feetfirst.org.
Photo courtesy of KUOW.